I’ve seen a few beginners’ guides on the forums, but most of them seem excessively long and the most important points get lost in the mess. I also strongly believe that the one thing that’s really holding this game back from really expanding is that new players just don’t understand the game and don’t know how to get better. This guide is an attempt to highlight the most important aspects of the game in a short concise manner. It’s basically going to focus on playing with rush type files composed mainly of lvl 2-3 units.

Soul Skills 101

Soul skills can make or break a file. For rush type files, you want to think of soul skills as grenades. They need to be both accessible and powerful. This is why it’s generally always advisable to go with skills that do damage, and that are 1LP as your first three SS cards. The 1LP skills are usually the most powerful, and you can activate them by letting only one unit die, meaning they are very accessible.

When playing a match, you will want to think about how fast to trigger your SS, and also, how you will go about activating them. Most files use level 1 units such as salamander, sylph, shade, and wisp to trigger their SS, while keeping their key units on the field. This allows you to barrage your opponent with damage, while also giving you time, and SP, to set up your own field. This is why a “shade -> lvl 3 -> shade -> lvl 3” open is so effective for Lawtia. As for speed, you will need to adjust to the play of your opponent. Verse aggressive files, it is advisable to trigger your SS very quickly, whereas verse slower files you will want to trigger them at a slower pace.

Importance of SP

This game is all about SP. Every move and decision you make, you will need to think about within the context of SP. Along those lines, you can think of units as investments, since you spend 3SP to play a level 3 unit, and then get that 3SP back when they die. On the other hand, for grims, you spend SP that you never get back.

This is why it is very important to pump out units early, especially free revivers. For example, if you play combat monk and alraune as your first two units, and they die quickly, you are forced to spend 2SP to revive them. That means you are a net 2SP behind your opponent, which is nearly impossible to overcome and you have already lost. However, if you open with free revivers such as Kurina and man eating tiger, you don’t spend SP to revive them, meaning you don’t fall behind in SP.

Another related mistake new players often make is using grims like fire arrow, flesh recycle, or frozen lance relatively early in the game. When you use something like fire arrow, you use up 3 total SP, leaving you off 3SP less than your opponent. The consequence of this is that in the next few turns, your opponent will be using that 3SP edge to pour out units at a much higher rate than you.

Efficiency

This game demands that you be very efficient in everything you do both in game and in file construction. On the playing side, it is very important to pump out units as fast as you can. So if you’re playing a rush file, you should not have 4 loose SP sitting around unused turn 5. In terms of speed, if you’re playing some kind of Refess rush, it is absolutely essential that you get guardian down on turn 3. Delaying the focus of your file will only give your opponent more time to establish his field.

In regards to file construction, you want to strive for some optimal group of cards where you don’t “over pack” or “under pack” SP. So what the heck does this mean? Well, if you use the Gowen starter, and decide to add three level 5 grims and a few level 7 units, that is over-packing SP. There is no way you will ever find enough SP to play the level 7 unit and the three level 5 grims. It’s just not efficient since you will never use all your cards. On the flip side, if you find that you always get to the end of your match and have tons of SP sitting around unused, you are under packing. This is also not efficient since you are not optimizing SP. Ideally, you want to strive for a file that makes optimal use of SP by the end of the majority of your matches.

Unit Order

The fourth thing I want to address is unit order. This refers to the order that you play your units. In many situations it makes the difference between a win and a loss. Generally speaking, you want to play your tanks and free revivers early, and group support units later. You use tanks to avoid spending SP on revives early. Support units, such as Folrart Knight Captain, become stronger the more units they buff. Usually you want to play these support units after you have a few units set up already. The take home point here though is to get you thinking about unit order.

On a small side note, people don’t seem to think of skipping as a legitimate play. This results in many beginners repeatedly playing level two units. Just remember, sometimes it is better to skip a turn, and pour out two level 3 units the following two turns.

Flexibility

The final topic is flexibility. As you might expect, it means that you have to be flexible in how you play. You can’t play verse falkow the same way you play verse lawtia and you can’t play verse lycans the same way you play verse dragons. Some matches you will have to play very unorthodox to win.

Last edited by GonFreeces31 on Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:22 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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Love the guide. It is a good summary of the essentials. I even learnt a few things from this and I'm a level 57. I'll send my newbie friends and other new/low level players to this article and tell them to do the same.

If you have some time read the following guide its quite long but useful especially for new players.